SOUTHAMPTON, a municipal and parliamentary borough, which gives name to Hampshire, or the county of Southampton, and one of the principal seaports on the south coast of England, is beautifully situated at the head of Southampton Water, forming the mouth of the Test, on a sloping peninsula, bounded on the east by the Itchen, at the terminus of the South-Western Railway, 79 miles south-west of London, 13 south-south-west of Winchester, and 24 west-north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is also a county of itself,—the county of the town of Southampton. It preserves much of its antique appearance, but, although in the older parts the streets if picturesque are narrow and irregular, it may still claim the distinction it enjoyed in Leland’s time of ranking “as one of the fairest that is in England,” handsome and spacious shops lining the principal streets, while the suburbs are studded with numerous villas and mansions embosomed in woods. There are still considerable remains of the old town walls built in the time of Richard II., the most remarkable being a portion of the west walls, with an arcade on its exterior face. Four of the seven gates are comparatively well preserved—North or Bar Gate, South Castle Gate, Westgate, and Blue Anchor Gate. The finest of these is Bargate, in a room above which is the ancient Guildhall, where the quarter sessions are held. The representations of Sir Bevis of Hampton and the giant Ascupart which formerly stood on each side have recently been obliterated. The castle, originally a Saxon fortress, and rebuilt when the walls were erected, was partly demolished in 1650. After its rebuilding had been begun by the marquis of Lansdowne in 1805, it was sold, and in 1818 the site was parcelled out for building plots. In the vicinity of the ...castle there are some houses of very ancient date, including King’s House (Early Norman). The two old churches, St Michael’s (originally Norman about the date of 1080) and Holyrood, have been in a great degree modernized; the former contains a beautiful Byzantine font and a monument to Sir R. Lyster, chiefjustice in the 16th century. The French chapel of St Julien, originally attached to the hospital of God’s House, founded by Henry VIII. for eight poor persons, is of Norman architecture; it contains the burial-place of the earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey, who in 1415 were executed outside the Bargate for conspiring against Henry V. Among the modern public buildings are the Watts memorial hall, erected in 1876 at a cost of £8000, the municipal office, occupying the old audit-house, the custom-house, the philharmonic hall, the assembly rooms, the county court-house, the corn exchange and chamber of commerce, and two theatres. The educational institutions include the Hartley Institution, founded by bequest for the advancement of natural history, astronomy, antiquities, and classical and Oriental literature, and now embracing a library, reading-room, museum, art gallery, laboratories, and schools of science and art associated with South Kensington; the Edward VI. grammar school, founded in 1550, and reorganized in 1875; and Alderman Taunton’s school, founded in 1752, and lately remodelled. The school board was established in 1871. The benevolent and charitable institutions are numerous, embracing the dispensary (1809), the royal South Hants infirmary (1838), the female orphan asylum, the homoeopathic dispensary (1873), St Mary’s cottage hospital (1873), and the Palk memorial home (1876). To the north of the town is Southampton Common, formerly part of the manor of Shirley; and adjoining the town to the north of Above Bar Street is the Public Park, prettily laid out and containing statues of Lord Palmerston, Dr Watts, and Mayor Andrews. The town is supplied with water partly from artesian wells and partly from reservoirs. The population of the municipal borough (area 2004 acres) in 1871 was 53,741, and in 1881 it was 60,051. In 1885 the area of the parliamentary borough, formerly coextensive with that of the municipal borough, was extended to include the parish of Millbrook, the ecclesiastical district of the Holy Saviour, Bitterne, the parish of St Mary Extra, and the detached portion of Hound included within St Mary Extra. The population of this area in 1881 was 84,384. It is represented by two members.
The importance of the port dates from the Norman Conquest, and was originally due to its relation to Winchester. It had a considerable trade in wine as early as 1152, and from Queen Mary it obtained a monopoly in the importation of sweet wines from the Grecian islands. With Venice and Italy it had a large trade as early as the 14th century, and in the subsequent century it had a connexion with Newfoundland, while its Channel trade and its shipbuilding were also of importance. About the end of the 16th century its trade had, however, begun to decline, and the visitation of the plague in 1665 tended still further to aid its retrogression. Some improvement took place in its prospects by the creation of a Pier and Harbour Commission in 1803, and the erection of the Royal Victoria pier in 1831 was a further step towards prosperity, but its modern trade really dates from the opening up of railway communication with London in 1840. It possesses one of the finest natural harbours and has the advantage of a double tide, a second high tide occurring two hours after the first. While largely dependent for its import trade on its connexion with London and its easy communication with France, it has become an outlet for the manufactures of the midland and northern towns. Its great tidal dock, completed in 1842 at a cost of £140,000, has an area of 16 acres with a depth of 18 feet at low water, and the inner dock, completed in 1851, an area of 10 acres and a depth of 28 feet. Two other docks embracing an area of 50 acres are being constructed. There are also four dry docks, capable of receiving vessels of the largest tonnage at all tides. Within recent years the port has lost the overland trade between London and India by the removal to London of the headquarters of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. At present it is the headquarters of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company for the West Indies and the Pacific (via Panama) and for Brazil and the River Plate, the Union Line for the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and East Africa, and the London and South Western Railway Company’s steamers to the French coast. Steamers also sail regularly for Ireland and various ports on the west coast of England; and the steamers of the North German Lloyd Company touch at the port on the way to and from New York, and also to and from Asiatic and Australian ports. The total number of vessels that entered the port in 1876 was 7840 of 1,201,301 tons, of which 3780 with a tonnage of 201,434 were sailing vessels, and 4060 with a tonnage of 999,867 were steamers. The number that cleared in the same year was 8047 of 1,174,365 tons, of which 3994 (196,064 tons) were sailing vessels, and 4053 (978,301 tons) were steamers. In 18S5 the number of vessels that entered the port was 9768 of 1,539,357 tons, of which 3456 (175,900 tons) were sailing vessels, and 6312 (1,363,457 tons) were steamers. . Tho number that cleared in the same year was 9641 of 1,523,759 tons, of which 3350 (182,688 tons) were sailing vessels, and 6291 (1,341,071 tons) were steamers. Since 1845 the trade has increased more than tenfold, although within recent years the port has suffered from the prevailing dulness. The total value of imports and exports in 1845 was £1,475,000; in 1880 the value of the imports was £9,205,183 and in 1884 it was £7,544,354; for these last years the value of the exports of United Kingdom produce was £9,306,326 and £6,909,072; while the value of the exports of foreign and colonial produce and manufactures in 1882 was £1,589,652 and in 1884 £1,150,954. Among the principal imports are cocoa, coffee, corn (including maize), apples, provisions (especially butter, eggs, and potatoes from France and the Channel
Isles), rum and brandy, sugar, wine, wool, and rags. Among the principal exports of the produce of the United Kingdom are apparel, cotton goods, leather, linen goods, machinery, copper and iron goods, woollen and worsted goods. The number of ships built at the port in 1885 was 19, of 17,875 tons burden.
The Roman station of Clausentum was situated at Bitterne on the opposite side of the Itchen, where extensive Roman remains have been found. The present town was founded by the West Saxons, probably soon after their landing under Cerdic and Cynric on the shores of Southampton Water in 495. The name Hantun-scire (Hamptonshire) occurs in the Saxon Chronicle under date 755, and Hamtun is first mentioned separately in 837. The prefix “South” was probably added after the annexation of Wessex to Mercia in 920, to distinguish it from the Hampton in Mercia afterwards called. Northampton. The town was frequently ravaged by the Danes in the 9th and 10th centuries. Canute, after his establishment on the throne, made it his occasional residence, and Southampton beach is reputed to have been the scene of his rebuke to the flattery of his courtiers, by the demonstration of his powerlessness to control the waves. Southampton is mentioned in Domesday as Hantune. It possessed a mint as early as 925. It was frequently visited by successive monarchs from the time of Henry I. In 1338 it repulsed an attack of the French and Genoese. In 1415 it was the rendezvous of the army of Henry V. for France, and during his stay in the town he detected the conspiracy against him of the earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey, who were executed outside the Bargate. In 1512 the marquis of Dorset embarked from the port with 10,000 men to the aid of Ferdinand of Spain against France, and in 1522 the earl of Surrey set out from it with a large fleet to escort Charles V. Queen Elizabeth held a court at Southampton in 1569. On account of the outbreak of the plague in London in 1625 the council was transferred by the king to Southampton, where on the 7th September a treaty was signed with the United Provinces. The town received its first charter from Henry II., and a charter of incorporation from Henry VI. in 1445 under the style of “mayor, bailiff, and burgesses.” This charter was somewhat modified by that granted by Charles I. which remained the governing charter till the passing of the Municipal Act. The corporation act as the urban sanitary authority. The town first returned members to parliament in 1295. Among eminent persons connected with Southampton are Dibdin the song writer, Bishop Peacocke, Thomas Fuller, and Dr Watts.
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